Eden Gardens Wedding : Sheena + Zach

Sheena & Zach are some of the most genuine, loving, outgoing people I’ve ever met and their relationship couldn’t be sweeter. Getting to photograph their wedding a few weeks ago, my cheeks were sore at the end of the night from smiling the entire time! In order to write my blog, I asked Sheena how she and Zach met and she sent me the below, it was just too good not to share verbatim!

“We met in August, 2003 in Itta Bena, Mississippi (the middle of nowhere).

Zach went to Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU) on a baseball scholarship, and I went to MVSU on a soccer scholarship. He was from Moorpark, California, and I was from Oakville, Ontario, Canada (Toronto area). We hung around the same crowd and had mutual friends, but that was about it until the beginning of our sophomore year. Neither of us thought twice about each other romantically (and I also thought he was a crazy, out of control kid)!

From the beginning of our sophomore year, I started spending a lot of time over at Zach’s house. There were 5 guys that lived in that house, and I was friends with most of them, so it was a fun place to hang out. It was also known as the “party house,” so there were always people over. Long story short, Zach and I started spending more and more time together, and I saw a different side of him. Even though we were total opposites in so many ways, we started to click. One night, Zach pulled the official question on me; “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” Needless to say, I said yes, and we’ve been together ever since.

We spent a great majority of our relationship doing long distance. We were in school together as a couple for two school years (sophomore & junior year), and then Zach got drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies. After that, we did long distance for about 4 years before we both went back to school together. Zach finished his degree and I got my masters, and we got to spend another 2 school years together. After that, we continued doing long distance up until about a month before we got married. Even though we were doing long distance for so many years, the longest we went without seeing each other was only about 2.5 months, which really isn’t all that bad when you consider that we were together for 12 years before getting married! We celebrated our 12 year anniversary four days before our wedding.

In March, 2015, we went to Ireland to visit my family and celebrate my grandma’s 90th birthday. During that trip, Zach and I decided to rent a car for a couple of days and be tourists! We drove around all day and then made our way to Killarney, where we planned to stay that night. As soon as we got to Killarney, we went straight to a local pub for a drink! Zach knew that he was going to propose at some point on our trip, but he didn’t know how or when. When we were at the pub, Zach was looking on his phone for places in Killarney to watch the sunset (because it was a rare day when it wasn’t raining)!

Zach found a place called Ross Castle that was apparently a great place to watch the sunset, so after we left the pub, we went straight there. When we got there, the castle was closed, so we just walked around the property and checked it out from the outside. We went around the back of the castle, which overlooked a lake, and sat there to watch the sunset. I had absolutely no idea that he was going to propose then until he started saying some things that I thought were weird and out of character. He eventually told me that he brought a ring pop with him (he knows I love candy, but he also always told me that one day, he was going to propose with a ring pop). He told me I could only have it if I put it on my “special finger.” I was like, “okayyy you’re so weird,” but I obliged. I went to put the ring on, but it’s designed to fit a child, so of course it didn’t fit. I told him it didn’t fit, and his response was “well I have another ring that does fit.” He went to reach for it in his jacket as I freaked out a little (in total disbelief), and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him (with his Ninja Turtle shirt on and everything – in true Zach style)! It was perfect because there was no one around, but just as Zach got off his knee, two girls walked around and congratulated us and asked if we wanted a photo taken. After a couple of minutes of staring at my ring, I asked for my ring pop back because I wasn’t finished with it yet.

So the romantic proposal story is that Zach proposed to me in Ireland at a castle at sunset (and also brought me candy – or two rings, whichever way you want to look at it)!”

Is that not good or WHAT! Congratulations, Sheena & Zach! Cheers to the beginning of a lifetime of love and happiness side by side.